Love Madness
by Vicky Yun Kamiya
Summary: Love, madness and death. Lady Une s life wasn t easy. Her mother, his cousins, his brothers in arms...  All contributed to becoming who she is today.Traslation of "Locura de Amor"  original story in Spanish


_**Note:**__ To understand the plot of this fic you might need to have read Gundam W Episode 0 or at least know what it's about.  
_

**Love Madness (Lady Une's story) **

**Chapter 1: The life of infamous women, part 1 **

_If you have a deep grief, think of me _

_If you want to cry, think of me _

_You see I worship your divine image _

_Your naive mouth that being so young _

_Taught me how to sin_

Lady Une is standing in front of one of the big windows of the mansion that Treize once inhabited and that now she shares with his daughter. Beside her, an open box with several pictures scattered on the table, right next to the flower vase. But her eyes aren't there; they're in the evening sky and her mind is in what the music player is now playing. Very likely, music is the only thing she shares with her mother, the only link between her and a person that is no more. The melancholic melody takes her to equally sad times, times that will never return but that left their fiery brand on her.

Marimeia walks into the salon and her acute sense of perception makes her not to look at her but to the music and the box of photographs with the untied ribbon. She thinks she knows the answer to her worries, so she doesn't ask, merely murmuring:

"So that music was..."

"The song of my mother and my father." She answers before the girl can finish.

The daughter of Treize Kushrenada keeps silent. She knows that for Lady Une to tell her something she must remain quiet. She just sits down and listens. And she isn't mistaken; it seems that after all those years, she'll break her silence. She looks at the girl and then back at the window, her gaze is lost in the swinging of the trees and her words in the whispers of her memory.

_I never knew my father or the details of their relationship or why he left her. All I know is that my mother named me only with her maiden name: Une. She... she was a strange woman... _

AC 187 -Outside Munich

Anne Une is playing with one of her porcelain dolls in the garden of the house. She lifts her eyes to the sky: the storm is coming and she is very much afraid of storms. The little girl walks into a salon that was once beautiful but is now nothing more than ruins, almost like its inhabitants. An old music player is playing a sad song, a woman listens holding a pillow in her arms while she repeats the lyrics.

_Think of me when you're in pain _

_When you cry, think of me as well _

_Whenever I want to take my life _

_I don't want it at all _

_It's useless without you _

"Mama..."

"What are you doing here?" The woman asks looking at the child. The woman's eyes glower with anger, as if her daughter was the reason of all her miseries.

_They explained to me once that my mother had been very pretty and that she even had some fortune. There was money, I still remember a jewel box that my mother kept, but as for her being young and pretty and charming as they said she was, I can't imagine it. The only image I have of that woman is that she couldn't deal with me, or with herself. _

"Mom, it's going to rain... Can we close the windows?"

"Get out of here you idiot girl! Get out of my sight, stupid!"

The girl runs as fast as she can but she trips in the middle of the room. She gets up swiftly; if her mother catches her, she'll beat her again.

The image changes rapidly. Une sees herself walking into the house. She's carrying the shopping bags, always with her doll in her arm.

"Mom, I'm back. The shopkeeper wants to know when you'll pay the bill."

There's no answer from the salon. Fearfully, she approaches the chair, but no, her mother isn't there.

"Mom, mom." She starts calling her. She leaves the bags in the table, then takes the doll and runs to the garden.

"Mom, mom!"

Anne stops petrified when she meets the scene. The woman's brown eyes stare at nothing. There was her mother with her feet and arms hanging limp by the force of gravity. Next to the big oak tree, a chair lying on its side and the rope on the tree are the sound evidence of the event.

The doll falls to the ground; Anne screams in terror and runs out of there.

_Think of me when you're in pain _

_When you cry, think of me as well _

_Whenever I want to take my life _

_I don't want it at all _

_It's useless without you _

_The reasons why she did it were never clear... I remember I heard the doctor whisper she had gone insane with love and she couldn't bear it. The neighbours blamed my father... Some said that when he left her, she went mad. Others, however, said that he left her because she had gone mad before. I didn't pay much attention to the gossip. Those things were far from me at that time. _

_I don't remember well how it was, but by then the first wars had begun and the army was mainly in charge of the work of the police. Somehow, they managed to find Benjamin Une, my mother's brother. _

"You have family?" Marimeia asks unbelieving. "I mean..."

"Yes... I had some relatives." Lady Une answers. "As for family, that's something else..."

_My uncle was widowed some time before and__ was left in charge of four children. Midii, his first born, was four years younger than me. However, being the only woman, she ran the house, that's why he thought that by taking care of me, I could help in some way._

Bejamin walks in with his niece by the hand. She's still holding her porcelain doll.

"Midii, she's your cousin Anne. She'll be staying with us from now on. Make her help you in whatever you need."

An eight year old girl raises her eyes. Her hair was light, as were her eyes; you can tell the difference with Anne just by looking at them. She stops playing with her youngest brother and approaches the newcomer.

"Hello, Anne. How are you? I'm Midii and they're my brothers Ben, Herman and Theodor."

Midii extends her hand but her cousin doesn't answer back.

"What a pretty doll! Is it yours?"

"My mom gave it to me." Anne answers.

"Can I play with it?"

"No!"

"Anne, we have very little here and we all must share what we have. If not, we can't survive." Her uncle chides her.

Anne turns her eyes; no more was needed to tell her she had gone from being the mistress of the house to be borrowing space in just a month. She looks at the doll's brown eyes, so like hers it comforts her somehow and then she gives it to her cousin.

"Alright. But you have to ask me whenever you want to use it."

"OK." Midii promises, holding it.

_My uncle thought that as we were both girls, we'd keep each other company. But Midii and I were very different. My uncle was sick, and his health was getting worse, so the things to do in the house were increasing. _

_Every day, she cooked the food that was starting to dwindle for everyone, changed her brothers and cleaned the refuge she called "home." I went shopping with her, controlling she was given the right change, to pay some bills and try to be forgiven others, so we were always together. I don't know how, but she somehow took me as a model, although I didn't do anything to gain her trust. She said she wanted to learn from me because I knew how to take care of myself in the city. I think she was even happy with what we did. However, I hated all that: I hated my father for abandoning us, I hated my mother for killing herself, leaving me to my luck, I hated that life filled with misery and grief. We used to fight a lot over that, as girls usually do. Still, we were normal people. _

Anne and Midii walk through the streets of the city. People bustle about busily despite the threat of bombing. In that area, the war started long ago, but people seem indifferent to all of that. They haven't realized that's the beginning of the end.

The younger girl looks fascinated to all the workings of the city, so many shops, so many people: A woman carrying a pekinese dog under one arm and some packages on the other; a man walking out of a limo. But the older one doesn't feel the same amazement, she looks at nobody on her way, not even those she crashes eventually. Although worn, her only fine dress makes her look like any other citizen. The felt hat and the porcelain doll leave no doubt about that. At one moment, she realizes she's walking alone.

"Midii! What are you doing?"

The other girl doesn't answer. Her eyes are lost in one of the windows. From there, she sees a girl older than them trying on a party dress.

"Look at that beautiful dress!"

Anne isn't much interested in what her cousin tells her, but she looks anyway. The girl in the window is very young; the dress must be for a sweet sixteen birthday. The dress is of red velvet, like her doll's, even down to the flowing skirt that reaches the floor.

"What a beautiful dress... It's as red as a red rose. Do you think someday, when I grow up, I'll be able to have a dress like that?"

The elder girl looks at the other. The question was filled with sincerity and dreams. And after all, dreams are the only thing you have when you have nothing.

"Sure. One day we'll grow up and we'll become roses."

Midii smiles, that idea somehow comforts her. Anne pulls her arm saying:

"Come on. We still have to go get those letters."

"A rose?" Marimeia asks before giggling childishly. But then she shuts up; she realized it was no joke what Lady Une just said.

"Of course they were lies. None of us was ever becoming a rose. Our only destiny was hunger and the streets. And all the dangers there…"

_My uncle worked for the military. It seems that under the disguise of a common man he was really a whistle for the military, giving out whoever could b__e against the Alliance. It was actually logical, for how else would all that family have survived. Sometimes, he sent Midii and me to take packages to the army men. I don't know what they contained, I guess the messages were in the cards and not in the actual package. We were paid with coupons that we then had to go and change. I always had to go with her or they gave us the minimum. She may have been the prettiest, but she wasn't calling the attention of the soldiers. I, however, was bigger, I was twelve and I looked like it. _

"Did you bring the coupons?"

Midii looks at the man filled with terror, so much that she was almost shaking with the tickets in her hand. But Anne isn't showing any fear, she holds his gaze as a woman would.

"Here they are." She answers, taking the papers from her cousin's hand.

The reservation man is about to say something but the look in the elder girl gives him no room for reply. He looks at the tickets and then says:

"Here, get two boxes on the exit. Two are yours."

"Only two? But... we are many in our family." Midii claims. "There's my dad and my three brothers, beside the two of us. It isn't enough."

"Your mother should've thought of that before having so many children, girl. Go and get the things and get out."

The girls are about to leave when the voice of the man calls them again.

"Hold on."

The man opens a drawer and looks for something. Then she calls the eldest and hands her some papers. When Anne is close enough, he watches her, although she turns her face.

"You're very proud, aren't you? Not that it'll last you long. Here, there's another two." And added more quietly. "And if you need more, come and get more coupons. But you've got to come alone."

The eyes of the younger girl gleamed, but her cousin put her right on her place.

"We're fine like this."

Anne takes the other girl's hand and they both leave the dependency. When they're far enough, the younger Une asks.

"Why did you say no when he offered us more coupons?"

"Idiot! I can't accept that kind of offerings."

"But why?"

The dark haired girl stops in her tracks, the youngest doesn't understand her reaction until she exclaims:

"What do you mean why? Because nothing's for free! Don't believe that people do charity, if they offer you something, it's because they want something from you!

"I..."

"You're stupid! I understand now why they send me with you! If it was for you... Oh, I don't know why I even bother to discuss it with... Go back to the house alone!"

Her cousin's words scare Midii. She looks really upset and is leaving her for real.

"I'm sorry, Anne..." she begins to cry. "I didn't mean to upset you, I just want what's best for all of us...!"

The younger girl keeps crying. Anne is annoyed at herself for paying attention to something so stupid. But she was the only person in whom she mildly trusted and even if she wanted to, she couldn't carry all the food boxes on her own.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it anymore. If you stay with me, I'll protect you. But you have to obey me always and beware if you dare betray me!

"Alright, Anne. I'll do what you say." She said softly before running to meet her.

"And what did the boxes contain?" Marimeia asks without completely understanding.

"Rice, noodles, powdered milk, sugar, flour and a mixed oil that makes me sick just remembering the taste. But it was getting more and more difficult to get food.

_I __began to grow stronger as time went by... and to harden my heart. One day, I was cleaning things in the house when I found a gun in one of my uncle's drawers. I don't know what motivated me to take it. Without them noticing, I put the gun in my clothes and hid it. There was an empty lot beside the house where we used to spend a lot of time. _

Midii wakes up scared. Shots are heard coming from afar. Was there a skirmish nearby? If that was so, she had to take her brothers and father and move out. But the odd thing is that the noise seemed more metallic than a bomb. Still in her nightgown, she runs outside. The noise seemed to be coming from the empty lot. A girl is shooting at some empty tomato cans.

"Anne! What are you doing?" She sees her father's gun. "What are you doing with that? Where did you get it from?"

"I found it in your dad's drawer. Don't worry, we can get more food with this at the guard."

"Are you planning to steal it?"

"Of course not. They'll give us what's right for our tickets." Anne answers while checking the safety in the gun.

The younger girl looks at the cans that were used as targets, then she notices that of all the shells, only one or two hit the target. How was her cousin going to force the man at the guard if not by shooting at him?

"I'm not planning on shooting at him." The brown haired girl answers as if reading the other's mind. "Only if he tries to give us less than what is right, I'll point the gun at him and he'll have to give it."

"Then why are you practicing shooting?" Midii asks her.

"In case things get complicated," Anne answers. "Now or at any time."

* * *

_**Author's Notes: **_

_Hello everyone for the first time! My name is Vicky Yun Kamiya, I'm from Argentina and this is my first story published in English, thanks to the support and collaboration of Tilja, my translator, and of Yoshi, the illustrator of this story (to see her works, you can enter my livejournal page and Devianart search under the tag "Love Madness" or "Locura de Amor" -the Spanish title)._

_I'm very happy to be here because I know how famous Gundam Wing is in the USA and Europe, and most of the fics I've read about Lady Une have motivated/served as inspiration to me for this story. I hope to be at their level, because I think the best fics about this series can be found in Shakespeare's mother tongue. But for today, I'll leave you with the clarifications for the chapter. _

_The inspiration for this fic, especially the death of Une's mother, I took it from a series of self conclusive chapter from an Argentinean drama called "Mujeres Asesinas" (Murderer Women), a series I love. Following this line, the name of the fic is also a reminder of another Argentinean series, "Locas de Amor" (Crazy from Love), and the title of the chapter is an adaptation from that of a book of Michael Foucault, "The Life of Infamous Men". Infamous men, Foucault explains, are the crazy, the killers, all those who did not "fit" in the society and the time of speaking (c. XVII century). All these people ended up in the same place, without distinction about who they were or what they'd done, they were the scum of society. Anne, her mother and Midii are decidedly "outside the system". Well, those are the things I read in my course that stick in my memory. _

_The theme that accompanies Lady Une's mother and that Treize hears is called "Piensa en Mí" (Think of Me), of Luz Casal and belongs to the movie "Tacones Lejanos"("High Heels" in the USA) by Pedro Almodóvar. I liked it because it gives the impression of going well with the atmosphere and it portrays Lady Une, especially the lines that say "You see I worship your divine image/ Your naive mouth that being so young/ Taught me how to sin", and that's why the daughter thinks she speaks about Treize. And speaking of inspirations... the doll I don't know why, but it reminds me to Azuka from Evangelion... I guess that's where the idea came from. And the roses... I don't know at what point I jammed on the frequency of Utena and there it is... _

_For those who might ask about Lady Une's given name: I read in the internet that the creators were "inspired" to give her a name by "Anne of Green Gables" (?) and that this would be the name of the Colonel. I don't know if it's true or not, but I needed a name so this one stayed, although I realize now that "Anne" and "Une" sound too similar. Psss, you didn't see anything. _

_This fic is dedicated to my friend Wingzemon (because the G-World has also men!) who helped me to delineate the parts of the story that weren't clear to me. Thanks a lot for encouraging me to finnish writing it! If you have doubts they can still be answered, so write me a review or the forum or the list that corresponds. _

_Vicky Yun._

_**Translator's Notes: **_

_Hello there! My name is Tilja (my LJ username is Tiljaunique) and I'm the translator for Vicky Yun Kamiya's works. This one is the first of her works to be published in English, but it isn't the first one I've worked in. I am currently working in one of her serialized stories for another fandom, to be published once the final fixes to the originals are made to work with. _

_The translation of the song here wasn't taken from anywhere, it's my own. The movie from where this song was taken is known as "High Heels" in the USA and it belongs to the movie's soundtrack, in case you want to hear it in its original language. _

_I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did translating it. Vicky's storytelling is superb and I always enjoy reading anything she writes, so I was really excited when she decided to give me a chance to make her known in the wider English speaking fandom, something I've been dreaming to do for some time now. I'll also be waiting for all your reviews. Let us know what you think and feel about it. _

_Tilja. _


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